1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to medical training devices. More particularly, the herein invention relates to anatomical models for demonstrating, teaching, and practicing laser surgery techniques and procedures, and further relates to the methods of their fabrication and use.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
The use of lasers as a surgical tool is of relatively recent origin. The transition from experimental procedure to acceptance by the medical profession began in earnest substantially with the onset of the decade of the 1970's. This transition is continuing, with the number of practitioners who are developing techniques and procedures for the office or out-patient use of such devices as a preferred treatment for an increasing variety of surgical problems growing dramatically.
The single most important impediment restraining even more rapid growth in the use of lasers in surgical procedures has been the lack of practical instructional courses and training devices. In other fields of medical practice, such as radio-therapy and ultrasound, anatomical models or phantoms have been developed to serve as training devices. As an example of such inventions, the human skin model described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,481,001 to Graham, et. al. provides an epidermis-simulating elastomer layer, a dermis-simulating elastomer layer, and a subcutaneous tissue-simulating substrate formed of a foamed elastomer. The several layers may be contoured to simulate variations and defects often found in natural skin. The penetration values of the several layers are established, by the appropriate selection of differing elastomer materials, to be within the ranges experienced in human skin inoculation. Intradermal injection of fluids may be demonstrated using such a model. Additionally, training in this procedure, and subsequent practice for maintaining one's skill in this procedure, may be accomplished with the same model, thereby providing human patients with experienced practitioners. After several such uses, the model may be discarded, having been filled with injected fluid.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,310,885 to Alderson, 4,286,168 to Carr, and 4,493,653 to Robbins, et. al. disclose phantoms for radio-therapy, scintillation cameras, and ultrasound, respectively. In particular, the Alderson patent discloses the use of an anatomically configured model which is horizontally sectioned to enable organ-simulating materials and/or other materials to be introduced within the phantom such that the practitioner may observe the results of radio-therapy exposure of the phantom in a manner comparable to that to be expected in so treating an actual patient. In the Carr patent, steel ball bearings are used to attenuate gamma rays by embedding them in an orthogonal pattern in a synthetic resinous sheet, thereby providing checks of uniformity, resolution, linearity, distortion, and field size with a single exposure. The patent to Robbins, et. al. provides for simulation of biopsiable lesions within the phantom, which may be biopsied as a method of learning and maintaining the skills necessary to such procedures.
The herein inventor is not aware of any devices similar to those identified hereinabove, nor of any devices similar to those identified and claimed herein, which are adaptable to the training of practitioners in laser surgery. Heretofore, practice in the use of a surgical laser has been performed on an array of fruit, such as apples, oranges, plums, etc., or on pig's feet. While microscopic observation of the effects of laser vaporization of the material of such specimens imparts some of the observable visual appearance to be noted during actual tissue vaporization performed on human patients, in that different strata of the specimens will give differing optically observed returns, such practice methods do not provide for the demonstration and acquisition of necessary skills and experience in laser spot size, power level, and pulse time control. Moreover, in performing laser surgery on patients, several differing types of lesions, such as warts, basal cell cancers, keratoses, etc., each have unique power, width, and depth parameters which may further vary according to the location of such a lesion on the body. A further complication in using a surgical laser arises from the variability in surface configuration of humans. Such earlier use of fruit and the like has proven to be inadequate to enable a fledgling practitioner to gain sufficient expertise to readily exercise his or her techniques on actual patients without risking error, which could result in undue injury to the patient. The hereinbelow disclosed laser evolved models cooperatively provide a means for developing the skills of a practitioner to the level of an experienced, proficient laser surgeon without resorting to training on actual patients.